Guilt
by skykeeper
Summary: [Revised] Collection of repentences. First for Kira, second for Athrun, third for Lacus, fourth for Cagalli, and fifth for the survivors thriving in this god forsaken world.


I've decided to revise… No… Tweak this piece of dabble a little. Well… Not little, exactly. At first I intended this to be a one-shot, less-than-a-page dabble, and then it came out as more than a page fanfic. Now I've tweaked it and made it into a collection of side stories. One chapter will revolve mainly around only one character. Well, excluding the fifth one, anyway.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED, 'cause if I did, I would've made it more intense and angst-driven. P

Enjoy the collection…

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**Guilt**

_The Story Thereafter_

1: _In the Marionette's Mind_

_God could have taken all of us with him, but he took only a certain people, like Major Fraga, the one that shouldn't have died._

Marrue-san must be sad, but she's not the only one.

I could have saved Fllay, but I failed.

I failed...She's gone now...

_I'm useless. Why do I even exist at all?_

"Kira."

The startled Kira jerked his head up from his arms that formed themselves as pillows between him and his hard knees. His head hit against something...soft. Locks of long pink hair brushed his shoulder as he jerked away and turned around.

"Lacus..."

Lacus, who seemed oblivious to where Kira's head was at, gently smiled as their eyes met. Kira tried to smile, but it came only for a moment, then gone.

"Bad dream?" asked Lacus, her gentle voice music to his ears.

Kira nodded. He felt almost guilty for making the songstress feel like she needed to take care of him. It was, to him, another evidence to support his uselessness.

Perhaps he was too blind with all those guilt in his mind to see her love.

"Do you want to talk about it? You look upset."

He shook his head softly. At the same moment a sound rang throughout the house, capturing attention of those who heard it. All the attentions in and around the orphanage were focused on it now.

"I knew I shouldn't have left her alone with Athrun," Lacus said to him, stroked his hair, and got up. "I'll be right back."

"Your sister is a clumsy one, Kira," said Malchio, who is sitting in front of the TV, listening, said.

Kira smiled a half smile reflexively even though the blind reverend would not be able to see it. "Yes."

Soon a group of children came inside, their clothes smudged with dirt. "Did Cagalli break a plate again? We can hear it from outside," said one of the children, a boy with a military standard haircut. Kira nodded weakly. The children start talking to each other, complaining that the dinner will probably be delayed yet again.

"Cagalli shouldn't help with the cooking. Something always breaks," said the boy to the group. Murmurs of "yeah" came.

"Meh. She's fun to play with. She wrestled with us when Lacus wouldn't," said another boy.

Kira, overhearing their conversation from the dinner table, silently agreed to that. Cagalli was always brimming with excess energy and spunk, one of those things he'll never have. It made him wonder sometimes how they came to be twins. They were so much different from each other.

Pink-chan rolled out of the kitchen. After it was Cagalli, looking slightly grumpy and down, followed by Athrun, who was embracing the princess, comforting her. They all, even the children, began to wonder if Cagalli really did drop a plate due to her clumsiness. They sat down at the same table as Kira.

"The next time you guys do it, make sure that you're not visiting someone else's place," said Kira bluntly, making the two blush. Cagalli was the first to recover from the sheer embarrassment.

"You pervert! How dare you say such a thing!" she growled at her twin. "Besides, we weren't doing...that. We were talking about something important!"

Kira eyed them a suspecting look, then turned to Athrun. "Well?"

"EA. Our intelligences reported that they're developing new mobile suits and mobile armors."

"Typical of them, really, always ready to lash out at someone and bite their asses."

"Watch your words, princess," the reverend called from his seat. "Think of the children."

Cagalli murmured something awful before letting her ego shrink. Athrun continued:

"If war should begin again, Orb wouldn't last."

"So we were thinking of asking for your help."

"Please, Kira. With you and Freedom…"

Kira kept his silence. He, too, was weary of war. They should know better than most. Athrun looked at him and nodded, taking his silence as an answer. He got up and spoke to Cagalli:

"We should go see how Lacus is doing. I'm sure she needs some help."

"Don't start getting cheesy when you get in there. I'm sure all the kids want to eat dinner," Malchio said to them. The kids all started giggling as they observed how the couple turned pink and stomped into the kitchen. "Lovers are still lovers, no matter how much they didn't want it so. Don't you agree Kira? Kira?"

Kira stared at the wood wall of the house, not saying a word.

_War, huh?_

He hid his amethyst orbs behind his eyelids. Only spots of white and red in sight.

_Why can't we just get along?_

Lacus was sipping the soup for today's dinner as the two came in. Without turning to face them she listened to their whispers.

"What should we do? We need his help right now," Cagalli said to Athrun.

A sigh came, then a soft whisper: "He'll come through. I just know he will."

---

If this was still before Destiny has ever begun, I would scoff and say "Dream on", but since he DID come to help (well, somewhat…)… Well, you know.

Next one's Athrun's.

Love him? You might want to give this a try.

Hate him? Just read it anyway or just head on to another one of those KiraxLacus fanfics out there. If you don't like the guy, I'm not gonna force you.


End file.
